KUALA LUMPUR—Gilas Pilipinas shoots for a more emphatic win when it battles host Malaysia in the men’s basketball event of the 29th Southeast Asian Games Wednesday at the MABA Stadium here.
Game time is at 6 p.m., with the Filipinos looking to pull off a convincing victory following a thrilling 81-74 win over Thailand in the opener.
Also marching to battle is the national women’s squad, Perlas Pilipinas, which will battle dangerous Thailand at 8:15 p.m.
The Filipinas are coming off a big 123-33 victory over the Burmese Tuesday, a fitting rebound from a sorry 68-78 setback to Indonesia on Monday night.
With the setback, Perlas Pilipinas hopes that the Indonesians will drop their next two assignments against Thailand and Malaysia for it to remain on track for the top seed at the end of preliminaries.
Malaysia, which snapped the Philippines’ dominance in men’s basketball when it won the title in 1989, is tipped to be a major force as it would come with the full support of the home crowd.
But Gilas coach Jong Uichico said they are ready for the challenge.
“We saw during our game against Thailand that this tournament is no longer the same as before,” said Uichico, who welcomed the return of Carl Bryan Cruz in their game against lowly Myanmar late Tuesday. “We have to do some adjustments if we want to win convincingly over the Malaysians.”
Tipped to lead Gilas Pilipinas are Filipino-German Christian Standhardinger, Ray Parks and Kiefer Ravena as well as Kobe Paras, Kevin Ferrer and Troy Rosario.
Games Wednesday (MABA Stadium)
6 p.m. – Philippines vs Malaysia (M)
8:15 p.m. — Philippines vs Thailand (W)